Nancy Alfaro as an Exemplary Collaborative Public Manager: How Customer Service Was Aligned with Customer Needs

Nancy Alfaro is the quintessential practitioner of collaborative public management. More than that, she is a collaborative public manager focused on delivering customer service. Finding herself in the midst of a flurry of activity when San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom suddenly ordered her to allow same-sex marriages in 2004, she pulled together the resources to perform more than 1,000 weddings in three days. Now, as director of San Francisco's 311 Customer Service Center, Alfaro oversees an operation that has reduced the number of telephone numbers residents may need to call for information and nonemergency services from 2,300 to just one. How Ms. Alfaro accomplished these remarkable tasks can be the source of fruitful lessons for other public officials.

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